Winter Lecture Series 2018
- Your Father Still Fears That New England Will Be Depopulated:
Mainers and the Rush for California Gold
Jan Eakins
News of California gold changed the lives of everyone in Maine—those who left and
those who stayed. Eakins draws on diaries and letters of 300 Mainers
to tell why more than 2,000 headed west in 1849 and why thousands more followed.
She is exploring how families coped, who returned to Maine, who stayed in the West, and
the effects of migration and gold on the State of Maine.
- The Strangling Angel in Casco Bay: Epidemic Diphtheria in Coastal Maine, 1735–1750
Nicholas E. Bonneau
In 1735, a new disease seized the northeast of North America. The mysterious throat
distempers never achieved the notoriety of other diseases of the colonial era, but no single
epidemic of the period proved more deadly to European settlers. It is estimated that by
1740, deaths in New England exceeded 5,000 out of a population of roughly 200,000,
and that over 90% were children. While the presence of the distempers in Coastal Maine
has been acknowledged, deaths in Casco Bay have never been included due to a lack of
reliable data. Combining traditional research with computational humanities
techniques,this presentation brings our region into this narrative.
This lecture was generously sponsored by the Maine Humanities Council.
- A Field of Ancient Graves: Celebrating 350 Years
Ron Romano
Eastern Cemetery, Portland’s oldest public space, reaches a milestone 350th anniversary
in 2018, and Spirits Alive kicked off its celebration of the beloved burial ground with
a presentation. Using photos, maps, and
images of historic documents, Ron guided us through the cemetery’s rich history, with
a peek inside the City Tomb, an overview of the remote burial patches designated for
special groups, and a look at how the landscape has changed over the past 350 years. From
bank robbers and pirates to abolitionists and war heroes—with some gravestone symbolism
sprinkled in—this presentation was a most interesting hour.